“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.  If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem.  But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world.  This makes it hard to plan the day." -  E.B. White


Not only is it your right to be happy, but your innate state of being. Do you know that too? - Beca Lewis at Perception U


Pleasure is the key to your deepest intelligence, your deepest integrity and your most profound sense of yourself. – Mama Gena


Don't ever give up on life. Life can be so beautiful, especially after you've spent a lot of time with it. Because then, life becomes like a lover you have been close to for so many years. You know him so well, and yet every day he gives you a surprise. - Yoko Ono (shared by Heather Duke)


"All this creation is part of God's manifestation, even the pain and the suffering of this world. But so is your desire to end it, so GO with that desire!" - Ram Dass (from FB site for Conscious Shift Revolution).


"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.
Yet that will be the beginning."
- Louis L'Amour


Why is this blog called "Jewels of Happiness?" When I was younger, I seemed to have a pretty much endless reservoir of optimism. The myriad disappointments I encountered in young adulthood just bounced off of me. Depression was just a toy I played with. It was melancholia, really, and no big deal. I sought out the rougher parts of town, the really gritty experiences, the hardest work I could find. It seemed that no matter what happened, nothing sordid or discouraging could take away my basic shine.

But things aren't quite so easy these days. Life hasn't gotten any harder (it's always been really challenging) but it seems that lately I don't have the capacity to bounce back quite like I used to. You could say that I take the ugliness of life a lot harder than I did before. It's all become too real; it's not funny anymore.

Since I am finding that I am continually up against a cold, hard wall of existential Nothingness, when I come across a thought that makes me feel that I can go on, or one that helps to re-frame what's going on with this crazy life we all share, I can really feel the relief that it brings.

Like a jewel. I decided that if I can keep finding these jewels and stringing them together, this might be a decent practice for feeling my way through 2010. So I started this blog and encourage you to chime in whenever it suits you.

In the spirit of "no fluff, no filler," I included a few quotes which I found very helpful. Maybe you have one that really sticks with you, and you would like to share. What keeps you going?